Off the beaten path

The Wall Street Journal has a short interview with Roadfood authors Jane and Michael Stern. The Sterns also write a monthly column in Gourmet magazine and they have just put out a new guide, "500 Things to Eat Before It's Too Late".

The beauty of their focus is discovering not only good food, but a way to taste local culture and history in many parts of the United States. The Roadfood Web site is a good way to find hole-in-the-wall places, restaurants distinct from places on the main tourist radar, eateries that come with a sense of context.

Ode to the supermarket

A coworker recently recounted to me his family's weekend trip to the grocery store. He laughed because he knew it sounded ridiculous - that a trip to the grocery store as a whole family could be a highlight of a weekend. But strangely, I understood that and it had me reminiscing.

Four Seasons loses executive chef

The head chef of the Four seasons died Saturday, just a week after finding out he had cancer. Here is his obit.

BBQ & Ice cream

It was a bbq & ice cream kind of Saturday. This was the year I finally made it to the Big Apple BBQ festival. The results were mixed. Thankfully the day would be saved by a surprise run-in with an ice cream truck I'd been wanting to try.

Food stuff around town

Summer is getting started and there are lots of food-related events around town. Here's a sampling:

Food, Inc., a movie about the food production industry, comes out this Friday, June 12. Over at The Atlantic's Food Channel blog, Corby Kummer says it is a must-see. Eric Schlosser, author of Fast Food Nation, was a co-producer on the film.

The NYC Food Film Festival also begins this weekend and extends through next week. Most of the events are apparently free, except for opening night. And samples of food related to the movies are to be offered.

The Big Apple BBQ festival hits Madison Square Park this Saturday and Sunday. You can get a plate for $8 - if you can bear the lines. While I love bbq, the heat and the crowds (I have read of incredibly long lines with the food sometimes running out) seem to have kept me away in the past. Perhaps its seventh year will be the one I make it there....

If you need to stock your kitchen with new cookware, perhaps you should make a stop at Broadway Panhandler's big clearance sale this weekend.

Recently a new set of food stalls opened up at the South Street Seaport. The Fulton Stall market is on my list of places to visit for the summer.

Danny Meyer Strikes Again

Danny Meyer already dominates Madison Square Park with Shake Shack and his restaurants Tabla and Eleven Madison Park lining the east side. Now, he is bringing something new to Central Park that could help brighten the early mornings of those waiting in line for Shakespeare in the Park tickets. An early look from Serious Eats at his new Public Fare at the Delacorte Theater, which is basically a fancy concession stand, makes it seem enticing. He's offering salads, sandwiches- some of which are on Sullivan Street bread- and a diversity of desserts, including gelato from Il Laboratorio del Gelato. How can he go wrong!

Dinner in Gotham

Gotham Bar and Grill a long-established New York restaurant with well-known chef Alfred Portale at its helm, has earned many distinctions over the years. It has the marks of a good restaurant. This was a promising dinner. Besides, my dad has deemed Gotham's steak his baseline against which he measures all other steaks. And I had dined here once before a couple of years ago and found the meal satisfying though not particularly memorable. So, I was eager to try it again.

Destination eating

Is Washington D.C. a city with destination restaurants? A recent piece from The Atlantic's great new food blog makes a strong argument for the nation's capital and its dining scene. Terrence Henry groups his examples into several categories that most food lovers would cite as things they look for in good eating cities. He builds a solid defense for why D.C. should be on any foodie's restaurant radar.

A Day A-Whey

More detailed post in the works about A Day A-Whey, offered by Saxelby Cheese ....




We set off early on a blustery, gray Sunday morning in two minivans, a group of 12 led by Anne, the owner of Saxelby's, and the two other employees of the cheese shop, Benoit and Veronica. After about two hours and a coffee stop, we arrived at our first stop for the day- the main room of the Wolffer Estate winery in Bridgehampton, Long Island.

Hi-Chew Happiness

I have found happiness. And it has become an addiction. It doesn't involve alcohol, tobacco or drugs (arguably). It is an addiction to Hi-Chews.

A Chicken in Spring

For serious eaters, there's the meal you go for to have an experience - to be pampered and introduced to interesting ingredients and flavor combinations, and then, there's the meal you go for in search of comfort - food that hits the spot. Smith's Spring Chicken Menu solidly fills diners with food that would make grandma proud. It does more than just satisfy hunger, it enhances the pleasure of dining with the sense that there is value here. If Smith's has figured out how to make diners feel as though they are truly getting a deal while still actually making money off this set menu, they've discovered a potent secret weapon.

A Summer Night's Dream

A summer dinner at Blue Hill Stone Barns is an exercise in patience, anticipation and trust. If you can manage this, you will be handsomely rewarded. The privilege is afforded only to those who manage to snag a hard-earned reservation by calling exactly 60 days before the desired dinner date and maintaining a level of persistence that pierces through the wall of busy signals likely to be encountered. So, naturally, having been tapped as one of the lucky ones, we headed into this birthday dinner with a high level of excitement.

O Ya? Oh Yeah!

It's tough to keep up with all the new restaurants constantly opening in New York and Boston, but close reading of various blogs and review sites helps. Sooner or later, the same names begin to show up across the board. And it becomes apparent that certain places are garnering special attention. Deserved or not, depends on which source one trusts or, even better, on personal experience.

When the New York Times restaurant critic, Frank Bruni, shocked me by naming his Number One restaurant outside of New York City as a little place called O Ya in Boston, I decided it was time to check in on it myself. I'd seen the name pop up here and there; up to that point I basically only knew that it was an expensive sushi place in downtown Boston with some good reviews from diners. But I hadn't had much of an urge to try it out because there were already a tier of good sushi restaurants that I regularly turned to. When it comes to sushi, I find that after a certain price point (where I know the fish is fresh and safe, and I've found it to be tasty) my palette cannot distinguish a large difference in the quality that makes me feel it is worth paying much more. I'm going to put it out there now that, hands down, the food at O Ya is worth the price.

A Lesson in Gluttony

Not only do I live and love to eat, I value the memory of all that I've eaten, so that I may share with others the things I have devoured and so that the smells and tastes and memories stay with me!

So here is a chronicle of a food-filled weekend in Boston with my cohorts mcgillicuddy and chickiecc (I think I may have hit their limits of eating or come close to it! I on the other hand don't seem to have any! :p)

An Appreciation of Taste

I not long ago finally had a chance to dine at one outpost - Degustation - of the curious Lamb empire. In addition to Degustation, Jack and Grace Lamb own Jack's Luxury Oyster Bar and Jewel Bako (which neighbors Degustation and shares a corridor with it). The space that Degustation now occupies has gone through several incarnations over the past few years, finally settling on its current identity - a tiny, stylish tapas bar. By tiny, we are talking about 15 seats and no more, situated in an intimate half-rectangle around the "kitchen". Dining here is not just about the food, but about the experience of eating as well (one best shared in pairs or as three at most).

On this particular night we were the first to arrive and were seated right in the center, where we could observe all the action from one end to the other. Though small, it was hard to keep up with all that was going on behind the counter -between the three cooks and the waitress there was a lot going on! The other seats quickly filled in soon after we sat down.

We each started with a nice glass of white wine - their glasses are quite reasonably priced with several around $7 or $8. The evening's meal can be done a la carte or as a chef's tasting menu - either in five courses or ten. The five-course tasting menu is just a selection of dishes that are already on the menu, while the ten-course menu consists of dishes that the chef has chosen to create for that night. A couple beside us went with the ten-course tasting menu and while we didn't keep track of everything they got, the dishes for the most part looked inventive and interesting and included ingredients not seen elsewhere on the printed menu.

We decided to choose our own courses. By the end of our meal we had ordered seven dishes. Because the food comes fairly quickly, it is easy enough to start off with a few dishes and order more as you go along, though catching the one waitress as she shuffles up and down the line may be a bit tough.(There are also two other people on the outside edge helping to clear dishes and bring new silverware - which comes fresh after each dish, perhaps a little too formal and unnecessary.) One of the dishes we had (the croquettas) was a later addition, because we had seen several orders of it go out and they looked too good to pass up.

But back to the beginning.

Per Se Dinner

Wednesday night my family had dinner at Per Se for my father's birthday. My dad managed to score the much-coveted reservation exactly 60 days ago and was given a 6 p.m. time. Though my dad would have preferred a 7 p.m. reservation I was plenty glad to eat early - there was nice light by the window and because the dinner was just over three hours, we weren't done until a little after 9 p.m. There was a lot to digest after that! Knowing that I was about to have something of a semi-exclusive experience (one of only 16 tables each night, though there is also a private party room in the back) stoked my excitement.

In summary: The dinner was a sensory-stimulating, fun progression of a wide range of food including seafood, meat and cheese. The food was outstanding and certainly nothing was bad. While the service was good, we've definitely had better at other top NYC dining establishments (Le Bernardin, Jean-Georges), but the atmosphere at Per Se was a tad more relaxed and we had a beautiful view of Columbus Circle and Central Park as we were seated right at the window. Was it worth the money? Well, let's wait until we get to the end.

Baba & Chaat

I've "discovered" two new lovely treats. I put the word discovered in quotes because apparently I was just really slow in learning about these delish delights.

BABA GANOUSH
I'd been too blinded by my admiration for hummus to ever notice it's cousin Mr. Baba. Gloriously smokey and smooth this dish is so creamy and yummy. The best version I've had(although, truth be told it's also the only version I've had) is at Akdeniz, a Turkish restaurant that Kitchenette and I have been to twice. Nicely warmed and pooled into a large bowl/dish it's topped with a tomato-based stew of either chicken or beef. To me though, the stew is merely a distraction. It's Mr. Baba I come to see. But he's an expensive date. For that gustatory pleasure, it's about $15-16 dollars. So does anyone know of any good baba ganoushes I can purchase at the grocery store? And is it traditional that they serve it warm? Because I have to tell you, I don't know if I would like Mr. Baba nearly as much if he were chilled.

CHAAT
Being cheap and adverse to risk, I usually order from a limited selection of my favorites whenever I'm at an Indian restaurant (chicken tikka masala, chicken vindaloo, saag paneer, vegetable korma, etc). But BUFFETS are a whole different story. They rock! This one restaurant near my apartment has an amazing weekend brunch spread. Luis and I go to this brunch at least once a month. Each time, I've noticed this appetizer of crunchy potato chip look-a-likes that get doused with yogurt sauce, chick peas and potatoes and a green sauce. It was never really compelling enough for me to try until one day when after my third plate of chicken vindaloo I decided to branch out. This stuff is TERRIFIC!!! It's crazily crunchy, both sweet and sour, and just this huge party of flavors. It's bold, brash and unique. Apparently there are also a wide variety of chaats in existence with restaurants putting their own spins on the dish?

Anyway, if you haven't ever tried either of these. I highly recommend them. Although I really do think the baba ganoush must be better warm rather than cold.

(photo from www.channelm.ca)

Chez Henri, Boston

In the spirit of taking advantage of a work-related jaunt to Cambridge, MA, I had "dinner" in February with two friends at Chez Henri, a restaurant that had long been on my list of Places I'd Like To Go but which somehow never made it to the number one spot. Chez Henri is a cute little restaurant parked on a sidestreet just off the main drag of Massachussetts Avenue, between Harvard and Porter Squares. Upon entry, you realize that the cute little space is further divided into two separate but not entirely equal spaces - to the left, the bar room and to the right, the dining room. I had lured my friends to CH on the basis of its famously fancy (and comparatively well-priced) bar food and as we walked through the cold evening, our hunger built.

When we arrived, the bar room was probably 75% full - most of the seats at the bar were occupied and there were diners at most of the small tables. But we found a seat and settled in with the menu [http://www.chezhenri.com/menu.php?menu_category=Bar%20Menu]. I had read very promising things about the Pressed Cuban Sandwich and now that Kitchenette has finally convinced me that pork isn't the evil meat that I was raised to believe it is, I decided to order that. J had Cuban Style Empanadas and F the Warm Spinach Salad with Duck Tamales. We also shared an order of calamari. Everything was delicious - my Cuban was cheesy and oozy and warm on thick toasted bread. YUM!! The food came out quickly, the service was good and the environment was warm and cosy. It could have been a less enjoyable experience if we had been stuck at a table near the door or squeezed into some corner of the small room but we were lucky and had a lovely time.

If you find yourself in Boston - or live there - and are looking for a classy restaurant experience without spending a lot of money, I'd highly recommend Chez Henri. And get the Cuban - while J and F enjoyed their food they were both jealous of mine!

duck duck duck

every once in a while...i get an intense craving for roast duck (other cravings are for Indian food and Vietnamese food and a burrito)...

Recently i had two opportunities to eat Peking Duck, which i think I never tried before.

The first place I tried it was at Sang Kee (one of my favorite Chinatown restaurants)....I really enjoyed it there, as I got to roll my own little pancakes. Because I was SO hungry, I also enjoyed the extra rice and accompanying dish, which was the remaining duck meat, stir-fried with snow/snap peas and veggies in a rich brown sauce.

The second place I tried it was at Cin Cin, a Chinese restaurant in Chestnut Hill. This is a pretty nice, semi-fancy Chinese restaurant. I enjoyed the Mongolian Lamb the last time I went there. Anyways, I ordered the Peking Duck here and the waiter made the rolls for us by request. Unfortunately, I did not enjoy this experience as much because he put too much hoisin sauce in the rolls! Also, there was no rice or side dish to accompany this meal. I guess it was okay since the crispy spring rolls I had as an appetizer was pretty filling. But the duck was still good and I enjoyed the green tea ice cream for dessert.

does anyone know what hoisin sauce is made of? i don't know if i really like it...

Trader Joes Update

People on chowhound say the new Union Square store should be open March 16 or March 17! I dread the mobs of people I'll have to fight my way through, but I can't wait to have access again. I only wish I lived closer.